Street roots
Aug. 3, 2012
HOM ECOM ING, fro m page 3
veterans, they say, have serious mental
illness, while 70 percent suffer from
substance abuse problems. And about half of
homeless veterans have criminal records,
and homeless veterans are more likely to
live outdoors, unsheltered and experience
long-term, chronic homelessness, according
to the Council.
Each veteran (in the program) presents
his own unique challenges,” says Anderson.
“A lot of them have really poor credit. A lot
of them have evictions on their record. A lot
have mental health issues that have
prevented them from being comfortable
getting inside and staying indoors.”
According to the Portland VA Medical
Center, which is responsible for
administering the program in Portland and
the surrounding region, as of June, it was
providing case management to 447 veterans,
414 of whom had secured housing and were
currently renting apartments with their
vouchers.
obby Weinstock, housing consultant for
Northwest Pilot Project, the Portland
non-profit that provides housing services
seniors, says the fact that the legislation
gave responsibility of the VASH program to
the VA medical system was a mistake from
the beginning.
“They basically gave the VA medical
centers across the country responsibility for
ending homelessness among veterans,”
Weinstock says. “And these are hospitals.
These are medical centers; they didn’t have
any experience ending homelessness and
operating programs to end homelessness.”
Commissioner Fish says that after
studying how the city and Home Forward
administered its subsidized housing
program, he found the local VASH numbers
were falling s h o rt. T h o u g h F is h h a s no
direct oversight of the federal program, in
2009 he arranged to bring members of his
staff and a representative from Home
Forward to the Portland VA medical center
to meet with the medical director to discuss
where improvements could be made.
The process of identifying and referring
homeless veterans to the VASH program is
where Fish feels there is the largest need
for improvement.
“One of the challenges is that, while the
housing authority administers the program,
the success of the program depends on the
ability of the Veterans Administration to
match a veteran with a services they need
and to help them obtain housing,” says Fish.
“We ask the VA to take on a significant
amount of red tape and bureaucracy to
B
make referrals to the VASH program. At a
face a barrier to leasing up their VASH
time when everyone is stretched thin and
voucher,” Weinstock says. “Those kinds of
working with fewer resources, that may not
financial tools are critical to being able to
be the most efficient
successfully
way to deliver this
transition people
vital resource to vets
from homelessness
"
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k
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e
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to housing.”
worked oat the Males In the
Fish says the
Complicating the
system could be
problem, staffing
relationship between the Vlt
improved by relying
issues within the VA
m
edical
center
and
the
more on the city’s
have further
housing authorities yet.
existing resources.
weakened the
“We need to tweak We've made progress, hut
effectiveness of the
the model to give the
VASH program in
there's a lo t of room lo r
VA networks greater
the Portland area.
improvement. We coaid be
flexibility to contract
Fish says that
u
tiliz
in
g
more
of
these
with non-profits to, in
after bringing his
effect, do the
delegation to the VA,
vouchers much more
function of linking
the program’s
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people with services
leadership was
~~ J IL L R 1O O LE
HO M E FORW ARD
and housing,” Fish
changed at the
says. “They have
Portland VA Medical
more experience and
Center. But
competency in this
according to Dr.
area. Rather than create a parallel
Anderson and staff at the VA, high levels of
bureaucracy at the VA, we ought to tap into
turnover throughout the program and a slow
the experience of our non-profit partners.”
hiring process are keeping the program
For some working within the social
from being fully staffed.
services system, waiting for the VA to act is
According to Weinstock, staffing seems to
frustrating.
have been a problem since the early days of
the program.
for “We don’t get adequate referrals,” says
Riddle. “(We get) very slow, inadequate
“Because the VA didn’t have a lot of
referrals.”
expertise in this area of ending
Another problem that has plagued the
homelessness, they were very slow to bring
program, according to Weinstock and
on staff and train the staff and set up the
others, is that the legislation does not
program that would be necessary to actually
include funding for other costs associated
implement it,” he said. “So, literally, for
with moving, such as application fees,
years the program was hardly operating.”
moving costs and utility-connect fees.
This year, the VA opened the Community
“If veteran doesn’t have an income
Resource and Referral Center in downtown
sufficient to cover those kinds of moving
Portland to serve as an accessible drop-in
costs and up-front fees, they are going to
center where veterans can be matched to
Progress...
By Denney Earl
Searching for something one already possesses is an exercise in futility
An obsession that leads to madness grasping at the wind
It has been said “life is short” even though some days seem to last forever
The light at the end of the tunnel is not always a train bringing
swift destruction Sometimes it’s a doorway into another dimension
a possibility to see things in a new light, a new experience to be
grasped and gleaned. Opportunities disguised as adversities
A challenge to embrace, a chance to move forward into a new day
Not to be ignored or squandered because “the lesson will be repeated
until it is learned” but once mastered another door opens and
intuitively, wide eyed I walk through not looking back to see if the
way through has been sealed Curiosity? No, but a hunger of a sort
The need to know as I am known. Searching, exploring, reaching,
trudging forward What lie’s beyond the next door?
Knowledge? Faith? Destiny?
Fallen Off
the Edge
A new book by A rt Garcia
"Fallen Off the Edge" is a chronicle
of one man's experiences after returning
from the Vietnam War. Told through the
eyes of Street Roots columnist Art
Garcia, this book celebrates the major
victories born from a series of
questionable choices. Art's jocular
storytelling takes the reader along with
him in and out of the California prison
system over the course of 10 years until
he found the strength and courage to
pull himself up from the fall.
The book is available online at www.
blurb.com under searchword Art Garcia.
Vendors are
needed services. Social workers, community
partners and various program-specific
service workers cycle through the clinic
throughout the week.
Additionally, Portland is one of a handful
of cities using a new pilot program to
identify an especially vulnerable population
of homeless veterans. The Assertive
Community Treatment team specializes in
identifying those homeless veterans who
have severe mental illness and have
withdrawn from the benefits system.
According to Anderson, 50 VASH vouchers
are reserved for that team.
“We’ve been slowly filing up that team,”
Anderson says. “It goes slower than what
you would think as far as identifying those
folks. It’s not that they’re not out there, it’s
that they don’t always want to come to us.”
n June, Congress approved the funding for
10,000 additional vouchers which, if
approved by the Senate and President,
would increase the total number of VASH
vouchers to around 60,000. Early estimates
by the National Coalition for Homeless
Veterans suggested that nearly 90,000
vouchers might be needed.
And in a move that could help address
one area in which the VASH program falls
short, the VA announced in July that $100
million in grants were made available to
private non-profits and other community
agencies providing services to homeless
veterans.
Fish says he is encouraged by the
progress that has been made in the VASH
program and he commends both the VA and
Portland’s local non-profits.
“In 2009 it wasn’t working very well, and
in 2012 there is tremendous coordination,”
says Fish. “We can always do better, but
we’ve taken a giant step forward.”
Despite the improvements made to the
VASH program, some say there remains
room for improvement.
“I don’t think that we’ve worked out the
kinks in the relationship between the VA
medical center and the housing authorities
yet,” Riddle says. “We’ve made progress, but
there’s a lot of room for improvement. We
could be utilizing more of these vouchers
much more quickly.”
Weinstock agrees, but adds that there is a
human side to inefficiency.
“Every month that one of these VASH
vouchers goes unused, that’s another, in the
Portland area, $700 floating away,” he said.
“More importantly, that’s another homeless
vet that has to be outside or in a shelter or
in their car. That’s the big moral problem.”
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